


It Lurks Beneath

by PuccinisGhost



Category: Arthur (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 18:53:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1358215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuccinisGhost/pseuds/PuccinisGhost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A third-grade class trip to the Palisades Park caverns becomes a nightmare when a massive earthquake triggers a cave-in, trapping the students and critically injuring Mr. Ratburn.  But that’s only the beginning.  The tremors have awoken something that has long slumbered deep in the earth, never before seen by human eyes- something large, and fearsome, and HUNGRY… (AU based off 5.4b,  “The Cave”)</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Lurks Beneath

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Arthur or any of the characters depicted in the following work.

“ _Scared_ yet, Arthur?”

There were times when Arthur adored Francine Frensky, and there were other times when he wanted nothing more than to smack her upside the head.  Now was definitely in the latter category.

“ _No_ ,” he snapped, even as a tiny voice inside him whispered _Oh yes, you are_.

“Don’t worry.  If it gets too dark for you, you can always hold my hand.”  Her mocking chortle echoed off the cave walls.

Arthur ground his teeth in fury.  Why had he ever let it slip that the idea of going spelunking made him nervous?  For days now he had been relentlessly teased, at home by D.W., and at school by the girl whom he had thought was one of his closest friends.

His little sister’s brattiness was merely par for the course- but what on earth was the matter with Francine?  She had _never_ given him such a hard time before- not when he got his first pair of glasses, not when he bobbled an easy pop fly and cost them the game against Mighty Mountain.  Was she out to dethrone Binky as Lakewood’s top bully?

As the little group descended and the light from the cave opening behind them faded away, the contemptuous smirk on Francine’s face became harder and harder to make out- a fact for which Arthur was deeply grateful.  He looked from one side to the other, and, despite his anxiety, found himself marveling at the view.  Palisade Park Caverns had been shaped by countless millennia of erosion and tectonic shifts into a thing of exquisite beauty, almost a natural cathedral.  Stalactites hung down from the ceiling like the fingers of some immense beast, almost meeting the stalagmites that rose up in a limestone forest around Arthur and his classmates.

His rapid breathing eased.  _It’s going to be okay.  Mr. Ratburn’s here with us, and the guide obviously knows what he’s doing._

Up ahead, the Brain was anxiously tugging on Mr. Ratburn’s jacket.  “Sir?  I don’t mean to be a spoilsport, but I’m wondering whether it’s safe for us to be down here.  My homemade seismometer has been detecting small tremors for the past forty-six hours.”

“What’s a seismo...whatever?” asked Binky, who had overheard.

“It’s a machine for measuring the movements of the earth,” said Mr. Ratburn.  “Now, Alan, I don’t think there’s any need for alarm.  There hasn’t been an earthquake in the Elwood City area for nearly three hundred years.”

“But that’s just it.  The city lies on a major fault line, and according to my calculations, we’re _long_ overdue for a major-”

“That’s _enough_ , Alan.”  Mr. Ratburn’s voice betrayed a mixture of irritation and fear.  “If you keep talking like that, you’ll just get everyone riled up unnecessarily.”

“Everyone?” called the guide.  “If you’ll look to your left, you’ll see some of our very own cave bats.”

“B-bats?”  The bravado Francine had been displaying minutes before seemed to vanish.  “Where?”

A high-pitched squeaking in the shadows answered her question.  She gasped and backed away hastily, stepping on Muffy’s foot in the process.

“Ow!  Careful!  These shoes cost more than your dad makes in a year!”

“There’s no need to be afraid, children.”  The guide’s voice was level and soothing.  “These bats are harmless; they’ll do everything they can to avoid contact with people.”  Then he added, in a lower, more uncertain tone: “There should be more of them than this, though…”

“What do you mean, more?”  Francine was on the verge of panic now.  Arthur put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she jerked away, angrily.  “I don’t want your pity, Arthur Read!”

“Geez, I was just trying to help…”

As they trudged along, with only their headlamps and the running lights on the edges of the footpath to keep the darkness at bay, Francine steadfastly refused to look back at Arthur.   She walked with her head down and her hands thrust deep in her pockets, muttering unintelligibly to herself.

“Now, just up ahead,” the guide remarked, “is something amazing.  I want you all to be very quiet.”

The group fell silent, save for the scuffle of their shoes on the rock floor.  One by one they rounded a bend and stopped short.

They had entered a huge space that seemed to stretch back for miles.  High above, the rock swelled into a great vaulted dome broken by outcroppings of stalactites as thickly packed as the spines on a hedgehog.

“I don’t understand it…” murmured the guide as he swept his flashlight into every nook and cranny of the cavern.  “This has never happened before…”

“What’s the matter?” asked Mr. Ratburn.  Arthur couldn’t help but notice that every muscle in his teacher’s body had grown tense.

“Normally this part of the cave is full of bats- this is their usual nesting grounds- but…they’re gone.  All of them.”

“Ick!” Muffy cried.  The entire group turned to look at her.  “Just _who_ thought it was a good idea to leave _chewing gum_ on the floor of a cave?”

“That’s not possible,” replied the guide. “We don’t allow gum in here.”

“Well, _something_ sticky has gotten on my shoes!  I demand a refund!”

“Let’s just take a look…”

The moment the flashlight illuminated the ground around Muffy’s feet, she, and everyone else, let out a piercing scream.  For what she had stepped in wasn’t gum, but the bloody remains of what had once been several fruit bats.

“They’ve…they’ve been torn in half…”  The normally unflappable Nigel Ratburn looked as though he was on the verge of fainting.

“Aliens…” whispered Buster Baxter fearfully.

Francine, to Arthur’s amazement, burst into tears.  “Please, I don’t want to _be_ here anymore…I want to go _home_ …”

**_That’s_ ** _why she was teasing me so much!  To hide the fact that **she** was afraid!_

“It’ll be okay,” he said gently, hugging her.  “I promise.”  For a moment, she looked as though she might pull away; but at last she gave in and sobbed into his shoulder.

The guide clapped his hands.  “All right, everyone.  I’m very sorry, but we need to leave.  It’s not safe here at the moment.  Please follow me, as quickly as you can.  Stay in single file, and make sure you don’t-”

He was never allowed to finish his sentence, for at that moment, the earth moved.

From beneath them there arose a deep rumble, like the croaking of some immense, hellish toad, drowning out any attempt at speech.  Everything around them swayed from side to side violently.  Fissures opened up in floor, walls, and ceiling- thin cracks at first, then vast, yawning gaps.  One by one, the stalactites began to fall in a deadly rain of stone.

Arthur and Francine instinctively dropped and flattened themselves against the cold rock.  His eyes squeezed tightly shut, Arthur willed the roar all around him to be silent.  Instead, he was greeted with a horrific cry of pain off to his left- Mr. Ratburn’s voice.

The running lights along the path sputtered and died.  In the gloom of his headlamp, Arthur crouched beside Francine and waited for death.

 


End file.
